"Kantai Collection (艦隊これくしょん), also known as KanColle (艦これ) , is a online browser game in which one assumes the role of an admiral, assembles a fleet of kanmusu ("ship girl", girls based on World War II era Japanese ships and submarines) and battles against fleets of alien enemy warships" - KanColle Wikia [with minor edits here and there]

And these images don't even cover all the girls. Especially the Abyssal Girls!

Who happen to be right here!

Still not all of them though.

So, think Touhou. So many shipgirls. I guess you can call KanColle as the game that has a similarly sized fan community, especially given that it's only been around for... a year and a bit? You could say that the amount of images and comics is on par with Touhou, with relationships and personalities thought up on based on their quotes in-game. Music's there too, but it's not as abundant. Same with videos for some reason. I'm sure that'll pick up soon enough.

Pretty crazy, eh? I don't actually play myself because it's amazingly hard to get into. I mean:

1. You need to be in Japan to play in the first place (although there are ways to circumvent this)
2. You need an account on a shopping site.
3. You need to go into a lottery before you can even start playing as an admiral of your fleet.
4. You need to refresh the page given to you once you're in the lottery at just the right time so that you can go nuts and begin your campaign.

Basically: Very hard.

Of course, the fandom is pretty good at depicting the shipgirls in their daily lives when they're not out sortieing or whatnot, so you're not really missing out on much if you can't play.

It's sort of one of those games where you can buy items with real-world money to make the game easier, but you don't really need that since the game can be generous at times. Or just massively trolls you at the compass spin that determines where you go when you sortie.

Once you're in battle, the girls just battle by themselves. The only thing you choose is how they are arranged for battle: As in vertical line formations for high risk, high return strategies, or other formations to help ease the threat of submarines and aircraft headed your way.

Oh, and ships sunk in battle from your side can never be revived, so there's that.
ON THE PLUS SIDE, YOU MIGHT FIND SOME MORE SHIPS THAT ARE LIKE YOUR SUNKEN SHIP! They won't be exactly like your sunken ship girl if you lose her, but you can at least know that you raised another shipgirl to honour her memory. *cries*

So I started out with the Destroyer Murakumo since I thought she was the coolest looking. =w= Ended up building my first shipgirl with turned out to be a Rare one! The Light Cruiser Yuubari, who is now my flagship!

So far I'm waiting on my other ships to build before we start pounding abyssal face in! Or something like that.

So yeah, there are a lot of destroyers and you kinda get them thrown at you in large numbers. Everything else tends to be pretty rare, although I did manage to build the one submarine I got. Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being Stage 1 Kirby easy and Stage 10 being Lunatic Level Touhou hard, this game rates at about a 6.5. It's difficult to do well, at least at this point, because you don't have many good quality ships and there isn't a good place to grind at first. I still haven't gotten S-rank for the bosses at 1-3, 1-4, or 1-5 yet, but I think I can do it if I play smart in the next few hours. A small description of the stages below:

1-1: Pretty easy, but mainly make sure that you have more than two ships lol.
1-2: Also not very difficult although it does require you be a little stronger. A Light Cruiser isn't the worst idea.
1-3: This is difficult. Learning to optimize your equipment will help immensely, but you'll still have to deal with Light, Torpedo, and Heavy Cruisers. The boss is also Ru-class so don't expect to take her out on your first try.
1-4: Lots of carriers, and the boss node can potentially be two Wo-Class (my first time was and I skated with a B I think) so this is about as difficult as 1-3. Another node with Ru-class but its an ending node. I was too busy squeeing about Wo-Class.
1-5: Deceptive. Most of it is just submarines who are pathetically easy at this point. Like literally no potential harm. But then if you get careless...

...you'll be in a lot of trouble. Granted, there is no real risk to this battle because its extremely unlikely you'll be knocked into the red beforehand, but I've only come away with an A-rank here once, and its very difficult to stay in working order.

I managed to get into the lottery on my first attempt Saturday morning, and after I got home from my soccer game around 3, I started playing / setting it up so that I could play. And for the most part, I didn't stop until an hour or two ago when I needed to force myself to do reffings for ASB. I'll hopefully make a progress report thingy sometime eventually, but I'm definitely hooked right now.

I can't do a full count of who I have, but all I know is that I have A LOT of destroyers, while I'm also waiting on a Takao Class Heavy Cruiser right now as well as another Destroyer. Managed to get Heavy Cruiser Tone, who's REALLY fun.

Basically, my main problem is more that I run out of fuel REALLY QUICKLY. What, no, I haven't been busy trying to get a certain ship who's build chance is LOW. Nope. Not at all. On the plus side, I have a lot of things to scrap. I guess I'll cover the expeditions thing since Emi's gone and cruised her way into 1-5 and World 2. Basically, expeditions are your main source of getting supplies, which in turn allow your girls to go out on sorties and practice battles. Right now, I'm just trying to horde as much fuel as possible. OTL

(And now I have Takao, Kumano and I-8 on my fleet. They pack one hell of a punch.)

So I just passed through 2-1 and decided that I was going to take screenshots of my run. It took three different attempts because the first two times, the compass proceeded to tell me I wasn't allowed to fight the boss. So alright, that's cool.

We've had difficulties in the past but we are ready to continue fighting!

Run 1:

Pretty much a cakewalk. I take extremely little damage and pass on the Night Phase to save on fuel and ammo. Subs are incredible when they don't take much damage. Granted, taking damage is like their MO.

COMPASS-SAN GOOOOOO OH IT SENT ME ON THE WRONG PATH WELP NOT FACING THE BOSS.

Well...three Light Aircraft Carrier. I don't do good with Aircraft Carriers. So I expect to get pounded to hell and back. I've gone to hell and back from one, how do I expect to face thr-

Well this was not what I expected. Usually I deal with 3-4 ships with pretty grievous injuries but I managed to come out of it with only one real injury (sadly to the one who has the longest repair time.)

AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER!

Run 2:

Hi.

Bye!

COMPASS-SAN GO!Compass-san: You must go this way! *points NW*
BUT COMPASS-SAN THAT'S NOT WHERE THE BOSS IS!Compass-san: You must go this way!

*sigh*

Oi you lot again. Let's see if it was a freak accident I came out with my life.

Nope! At least this time most of the damage was concentrated on my sub, who has hilariously low repair times.

ABOUT MAYBE HALF AN HOUR LATER SINCE HOUSHOU DIDN'T MAKE HERSELF A TARGET!

Run 3:

Okay maybe I got a bit cocky. Houshou getting injured was not in the plans. It's not serious so i'll continue on, skipping the night phase to conserve on fuel and ammo, especially now.

COMPASS-SAN SHOW ME THE WAY!North then Northwest! You are ready Admiral-senpai!

WO

NO

NO

DAMMIT I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION RU-KYUU WAS HERE. WELP.

This was a _lot_ better than expected. Sadly one miss kept me from sinking that Wo-Kyuu at the top, since if it didn't Tenryuu likely would have OHKO'd her with a cut-in. It's a shame, but I still got an A-rank for this boss (yush) which means I'm onto 2-2! ONWARDS KANMASU! I BELIEVED IN YOU AND WE PUSHED THROUGH!

(Also noting I got no unique Kanmasu in these three runs. No Sendai DX)

Going to document my run of 2-4 (since I forgot to do it for 2-2 and 2-3), and its probably going to be a doozy folks. Just did a test run and while nothing especially bad happened this map has had a habit of kicking me in the groin (I've done at least 10 other attempts at it and I'm only doing it now because I got some very lucky ships from construction. I better load up on fire extinguishers and squirrels though.) Also expect much pissing about the Compass.

2-4 is a pretty significant jump in difficulty from the other World 2 stages. Most of the enemies are either high class ships (Battleships, Aircraft Carriers), Elites and Flagships, or both. It takes a good bit of luck to survive and even with a great fleet you still have to deal with the compass. It's a pain in the rear.

This is my fleet. Remember when I said I had great luck constructing a pair of ships? This is it. Nagato, Tenryuu Kai, Yuubari Kai, Mutsu, Kongou Kai, and Yamashiro Kai. Managed to get both Nagato and Mutsu. It's pretty sweet. My previous fleet had been 2 BBs (Kongou and Yamashiro), 2 CLs (Tenryuu and Yuubari) and 2 CAs (Furutaka and Atago). But I couldn't manage to do it, so I knew I needed to bring extra muscle.

Forgot to take the opening picture here, but this is the starting node. The easy one, and you are already greeted right out of the gate by two Elite Chi-Class Torpedo Cruisers. Along with one of the stronger Light Cruisers and Ri-Class Heavy Cruiser. This level hates you and it makes sure to tell you that. But this wasn't hard in the slightest. I'm already pretty strong but this can knock some people right out of the park.

Also, 2-4 is an amazing place to grind if you've got the strength. Getting MVP and being the flagship gives you 1080 EXP, which is a ton of EXP. My first test run saw Nagato go from Level 1 to level 6, and my second had Nagato go from Level 6 to Level 9. This run pumped her up to 11.

So the compass send me down the wrong path (which botched this entire run) but I decided to stick with it to show you how dangerous this map can be. Here we have a Battleship Ru-Class, 2 Heavy Cruiser Ri-Class, an elite Light Cruiser Tsu-Class, and 2 Elite Destroyer Wa-Class. It's a pain in butt. The elites can smack ships around and the Battleship is a Battleship.

Ultimately, 4 Battleships is greater than 1 Battleship and I come out with very little damage. But I was pretty much panicking the entire time. Battleships have this habit of targeting the weaker ships first instead of the stronger ones. This wasn't really a problem here but come the stronger battles on this map you'll want to pull your hair out, because there are some extremely powerful enemy fleets.

This is the node that I cry at, because its the ultimate "I hate your guts" node. This is the easy battle. 2 Wo-Class, 2 Elite Nu-Class, a Flagship Ri-Class, and an Elite Wa-Class. This is not the most difficult pattern on this node.

The most difficult pattern is a Flagship Wo-Class, 2 Elite Wo-Class, a Ru-Class, and 2 Elite Destroyer Ni-Class. This map hates you. Never doubt that. It might not be Re-Class but this is pretty damn evil.

Once again, this is the easy pattern, and I've got three damaged Battleships. The correct path is a lot easier than this but if you aren't careful its pretty easy with a weaker fleet to end up with four or five critically damaged units while the enemy fleet is largely unscathed. I know this since I've had this happen. ;-;

So yeah, 2-4 in all its unholy glory. Didn't end up at the boss node but I'll make sure from here out to keep my runs just limited to the correct ones. But this is mainly to show how difficult the game gets.

So I was busy building shipgirls, and then I decided, ah hell I haven't made a serious build in two days, what's the trouble with splurging today?

Tried three battleship recipes, and got myself Hiei, Haruna and Hyuuga. I feel temporarily blessed. Houshou joined the crew a while back, and I'm just busy training my girls. Hilariously, I have a higher level HQ compared to everyone else. I don't know how, but I'm like level 43 now. Which makes certain maps more terrible... Glorious.

I don't have high level ships though, but my main fleet is rather spread out from levels 18-32, which lots of random ships below 15 and all that.

Current main fleet is Inazuma Kai, Ryuujou Kai, Kitakami Kai, I-8, I-58 and I-168. Kitakami's replacing Ooi while she's in the docks because she's a complete torpedo magnet. >>;

My main goal for now is to farm 1-4 for an event item called Hishimochi, which gives a really nice item at the end of the chaos. WE NEED 10 OF THEM. AND THEY. ARE. RARE.

I totally forgot to document my winning run of 2-4. Actually I think I have the end result which was pretty hilariously in my favor.

Some more important events: I good portion of my fleet right now has been remodeled. All of my destroyers, light cruisers, and light aircraft carriers are. Most of my battleships are bar Yamashiro's onee-sama, Kirishima, Hiei, and Haruna. I finally got Hiei while doing some LSC. I have since stopped doing LSC because my resources dipped to dangerously low levels. :< My Aircraft carriers (I got all of Division 1!) need leveling as well as well as Chiyoda and Chiyoda's onee-sama. My subs also haven't been Kai'd but my highest leveled one is Goya (I-58) and she's still 13 levels away. It takes a long time!

Construction shenanigans: My first LSC was to get Taihou and I ended up getting a Hiryuu instead. Spammed the base LSC recipe a couple of times and got Hiei. Then spammed a normal construction Aircraft carrier recipe and got Souryuu. Then spammed for subs and got Hachi (I-8). Oh I also got Suzuya a while back while trying for Hiei and Ise (still don't have Ise...).

Drop Madness: Actually I only have two noticeable drops. While farming 2-3 for related quests I managed to get Makigumo from the boss node (and she's really quite good for a destroyer). While blasting through 3-1 to get to 3-2 aka leveling heaven I bashed the boss's face in and for some reason Kaga decided to grace my with her presence.

Currently grinding a bit to make sure my fleet is strong for the perils ahead. Suzuya right now is Level 34 and she's one level away from becoming an Aviation Cruiser. Nothing like more Zuins to make your day better!

So with the Spring 2015 event coming in late April, I've decided to do one last "Hurrah!" and clear 2-5, the Extra Map for World 2. Just did a test run of it and I can totally get to the Boss Node, so I figured before April comes and I stream the event I'll give you guys a stream of my attempt at 2-5. I've already completed it a bit from my test run, so I only need to sink the Flagship three more times in order to complete it.

I'm not streaming right now and will probably do it after supper, just making sure to post ahead of time so that if people want to join they can be prepared.

So currently, I've been having a blast playing this game and just chatting with Emi, Kamen, and Alex about it with massive Skype chat spammy goodness. I'm just gonna post a brief recap (since I forgot to record stuff via screenshots) of my first successful 3-4 run.

I went in with a fleet consisting of Haruna Kai / Kongou Kai / Kirishima Kai / Hiei Kai / Akagi Kai / Junyou Kai. I chose the Kongou class BB's over my other four BBV's for no reason other than I just like them more. Haruna and Kongou had maxed stats except for AA because lolAA, while Kirishima and Junyou had max armor. This was probably my sixth or seventh attempt, and typically, I was forced to either turn back when Akagi inevitably got critted into sinking damage or I was just not directed to the boss node (Gave me a lot of furniture coins though!) The first node, like usual, was pretty much a pushover, and I only took some chip damage. At the second node, Node F, I wasn't so lucky against the Ru that was waiting for me. Junyou ended up taking moderate damage, leaving her unable to attack during the day shelling phase for the rest of the run, and it meant that if she got hit again, I'd probably have to restart yet again. After thinking about whether the risk of continuing going was worth the extra resources I'd use, I decided to fuck it and continue on to Node H. Here I, for the third time, had to face the hardest fleet consisting of a Flagship Ru and two Elite Ru's. With a couple lucky crits and with the help of artillery spotting, we somehow prevailed, despite me almost having a heart attack when Junyou was hit, only to take 2 damage. I continued on to the boss node, and lady luck decided to finally join my side, giving me the only fleet composition that didn't have any BB's. I'd packed enough fighters to achieve Air Superiority, and we made it through. With only a single Light Cruiser standing, it was Akagi's turn to attack. And like the disappointment she always is for me, she misses. So I just hit the Night Battle button and let Haruna double attack crit it into the deepest depths of hell.

Afterwards, I got my S, and I guess the RNG felt bad for not allowing me to ever construct or get a CV from a drop, so it decided to make up for it by giving me Hatsukaze as a reward, who only drops at that specific node outside of events. And now I'm heading into 4-1, which should be really fun while I try to avoid being shit on by the compass, who gets to choose whether I fight the pushover boss node or the hellish Ta class at the other nodes.

So the latest event has been confirmed for the 28th of April. That's in pretty much a week from now. Not sure how everyone wants to do event streams. I myself really want to do them but I'll probably be taking a few days to gather information about the event and stockpile resources, so I likely wouldn't start until May.

Streams from me will be primarily of the Easy Mode maps, and will most likely be during the final week of the event. I'll do some practice runs before the stream, but I would like to go in not blind because it took me a while to collect 420 buckets. >>;